In the wake of one of the biggest technology scoops in recent memory — tech blog Gizmodo's acquisition and revelation of a iPhone 4G prototype still months from release — police have raided the home of one of the site's editors. Last Friday, state authorities broke down the door at Jason Chen's San Mateo, CA, home and seized computers and other possession as part of a "felony" investigation apparently related to the blog's purchase of the iPhone prototype, which had been left in a Silicon Valley bar by an Apple engineer. Gawker Media, Gizmodo's parent company, paid a still-unnamed party $5,000 for the device. Responding to the suggestion that Gawker and Chen may have broken the law, company executive Gaby Darbyshire says the raid clearly violated California's reporter shield laws. What's going on here? (Watch a Bloomberg report about the police raid)

Still, it looks like a disaster for all involved: Regardless of who's being investigated here, says Andrew Leonard in Salon, "no one ends up looking good in this mess." Apple CEO Steve Jobs comes across as "a control freak with police powers." Apple employees prove they "don't know how to take care of super-secret prototypes." And the pursuit of the page-view jackpot apparently turns reporters into black market entrepreneurs. "Steve Jobs' iPhone police state"